Methanol makes more power per unit of oxygen than gasoline, so it is great for NA cars.

It would help power if you replaced your gasoline with methanol. It would hurt power if you just added additional methanol to an otherwise already properly tuned engine.

 

Yeah, what he said. If you retuned you could see gains, but just putting on an already tuned car would do more harm than good. You might see some torque gains (torque likes fuel, hp likes air) but would likely loose hp up top.

 

i thought it made less power per oxygen, hence the nearly double stoich ratio of methanol. ie. 7-1meth 14.7-1gasoline.
i dont know if this applies directly to methanol but im pretty sure it applies to the generic category of "alcohol"

 

Ehhh to be honest, your talking over my head now. Its like i tell people, with the methanol, just pretend your running C16 race gas. If you car would benefit from that, then it will benefit from the methanol. If not, then dont bother.

 

Methanol makes less power per unit of fuel, but more per unit of oxygen. The reason for this is methanol is an oxygenated fuel.

Gasoline type hydrocarbons consist of carbon and hydrogen (IE, C8H16). The lighter the hydrocarbon, the higher octane it is. The lighest hydrocarbon that I know of is methane, which is CH4. Methanol is CH3OH. So basically methanol is methane (CH4), with an oxygen atom attached. In other words, methanol is high octane gasoline, with oxygen added.

The reason why it takes more methanol to fuel a given amount of air is because the oxygen atom built into the methanol takes some fuel to burn. So, not as much fuel (hydrocarbon) is available in the remainder to mix with the air.

So, in a sense methanol is like mild nitrous oxide. It adds oxygen to the system.

The trick is that the oxygen in liquid methanol is much more dense than the oxygen in gaseous air, so you dont have to worry that you're displacing air with methanol, because you get more back from the oxygen atoms that are in the methanol molecules.

Steve

 

You a chemical engineer or something? You sound like my father talking about a bridge or dam (civil engineer, GA Tech).

 

No I just studied up on this. Thanks for the compliment though. I'm actually a professional computer geek.

Steve

 

ooh, i didnt know it was oxygenated. so how come it burns so much cooler than, say... nitromethane, another oxygenated fuel? is it just because it has less oxygen per molecule than the nitro, or is there some other reason?
and on a slightly unrelated note: given your explination of methane being the lightest hydrocarbon i see why nitromethane is the "top fuel" for funny cars/dragsters.

 

TTT, any updates or proven increases in performance with meth and n2o?

 

i'm really going to try this out. i think it will have massive increase in power. after i install my wet kit i'm probably going to get a meth injection to see what it does to my AF ratio and jet up to see what it does. hopefully someone has some sort of results because this seems to be a untapped resource of power to me..

 

Sorry guys but I think you're expecting a little too much looking at methanol as a power adder by itself.
The extra oxygen in methanol is chemically locked and unavailable for combustion so forget that. It doesn't work like N2O does in the chambers.

Next thing is you have to run an extremely high compression ratio or otherwise very high cylinder pressures to burn methanol properly and take advantage of the extra possible combustion energy. If you guys are running between 14:1 and 16:1 compression, or over 6 psi of boost, then you're good to go.
The possibilities for N2O aren't quite as good as you think, but those spraying in the 200-250hp range and higher can probably realize some significant gains by using an on-demand methanol system, though fogging through an intake designed for dry flow will not be the best of ideas.

Swapping to methanol is not as easy as some people think. It really isn't an option to run full time on a street car, so on-demand systems are the only way to go. They just won't be as cheap as installing a "kit" for you guys that aren't running the boost.

By all means keep at the research though, and press towards a set-up that will work out well.

 

i dont think anyone plans on doing it as a solo power adder since it's in the nitrous section. but running it as the fuel part of a wet kit or additional with your wet kit you should get a increase of power because of the increased cylinder pressure from the spray. well at least i would think so. once i get around to that point of my build up i'll be playing with it to see what happens.

 

i have installed at least 20 snow kits on lots of diffrant car and trucks, with lots of good results. I have will tell you that i have had problems with there led lights,manual bost psi switch and alot of problems with there level indicator swicth, but to his credit Matt has been helpfull with corecting the problems. I have found the most gains by turning up the regulator on the pump it self and running a 75% mixture(you will go through alolt of fluid doing it this way but the dyno numbers are alot higher). also I modify the cars stock windshild washer canistor insted of using Matts small tank. Pm me with a phone number and a try to help you with what i know on these systems(i suck at typing). As far as running this set up on a nos engine if for some reasen the alchol ever got to the solinods it would cause damage to the rubber parts inside of the solinod and posible cause a stuck noid(the reasen i didnt intall it on the nos car i work on all the time). the only gains on na cars is being able to run high total timming on pump gas but the hp gains is not that much.

 

I have installed (yet to be tested) a direct port nitrous system with Meth as the wet part of the system.. I am days away from testing it. I am using 100% methanol in the mix. I am also running a methanol injection kit using the same 100% methanol.. I will keep you posted of the results soon..
I am using edelbrock "alcohol" solenoids, designed to be used with alchy/meth, I know NX will alter solenoids for you, if you plan to run meth through them.

 

Ooooo the benefits of being away from the car for a ******* year are endless. Now I will await flippers results of a wet Meth/Nitrous Power Adder. I was planning one since Propane is not NHRA legal. *******. Well, will let someone else pioneer this time.
*Ditto on the alky noids, would be stupid to run it on the regular fuel noid!*

Charlie.

 

pm me your results, thanks.

 

Do you have a shop in the Burbank or SFV area to do the install? I'm looking for someone to do an Aquamist install on my supercharged Mercedes. Any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Richard

 

i wonder will a FPSS have to be modified for meth? or a gauge sensor for a fuel pressure gauge

 

I have not found any FPSS that are meth compatible... Edelbrocks fuel pressure gauges are however.. Part #'s
1-1/2" Standard Gauge ....#73831
1-1/2" Liquid-Filled Gauge ....#73832
2-5/8" Standard Gauge ....#73827
2-5/8" Liquid-Filled Gauge ....#73828

Dont know how many others are..

 

this sounds like something I wanted to try, but didnt have the knowledge or ability at the time ... I have been recently thinking about it again, and then stumble upon this thread!

What are you using to calculate your jet size? Also, have you tested it yet?

I am very interested in running a DP setup this way ...